Podcasts

Been listening to This Partially Examined Life on the walk to and from work, has been nice to get some refreshing conversation around philosophy to remind me which thinkers or writers I should dig into deeper, in which I can do without.

My wife is a podcast fiend. Has a nose for some good ones. Outside of This American Life, Radiolab, Serial, and Freakonomics - which I feel most everyone knows of? - she's turned me onto 99% Invisible, Surprisingly Awesome, Reply All, Song Exploder, and Gastropod. All various shades of 'strong.'

I've been listening to WTF for a while now and enjoy Maron's interviews for the most part as some early morning commute background noise when I don't feel like music or even at work to listen to. I get that he's expanded his audience to a huge degree and is / has been using that influence to help his fellow stand ups out by getting them on the show.

But those interviews are so boring and usually the same shit. These people are not interesting, most of the time, not funny and I basically delete within the first 15 minutes. For example he had Iliza Schlesinger on this week and she was possibly one of the most grating interviews I've ever experienced. Listened to the full hour of her because I wanted to see if she could get more obnoxious by the minute. Even Maron was annoyed by her halfway through.

I'm sure I could Tweet at him about it or something but then get attacked as being sexist because I thought a female stand up sucked on his show but it really isn't just her. It is all stand ups he's been giving time to in general.

It was so satisfying when Maron released the episode with Obama and thousands of people all made the exact same joke on Twitter about how they had to sit through a half hour of bullshit to hear an interview with the President. His preamble is so godawful.

Maron does have some skills. He does have some humor. But, for me, none of the "highs" make it worth the slog through all his garbage. And so much of it is that.

I listened to the Tom Scharpling episode of Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast, and it was so good, not just because of Tom, I decided to go back and listen to more.I started way back at the beginning. Older (1950s-1990s) entertainment/comedy/showbiz is the main area of interest. The Dick Cavett and Paul Schaffer episodes were extremely funny and interesting. So far, I think Jerry Lewis and Groucho have both been discussed in every episode.

I like podcasts in small doses, if I listen to Too much it's like someone sittingNext to you on the plane who won't Shut the fuck up. I've gone through phases where I listenedTo all the mindfulness and zen podcastsNow I can't fucking stand themSo I moved on to true crimeSome of the podcasts are pretty good

Hollywood Handbook suffers from a lack of structure. it's really really hard to listen to in the background because the bit saturation is so high and it's super rambly. Sean and Hayes seem like p funny dudes, but I can't get into that show. RPI Harris.

i got into a solid murder podcast called Sword and Scale last year. the guy who hosts it can be an annoying moralizer at times, but the good episodes are really good. the more gruesome the better, usually.

coyote wrote:So I moved on to true crimeSome of the podcasts are pretty good

any recs?

most of the pods I listen to are sport (football, mma, afl)

I'll occasionally dig into the fplus if its a particularly perverted topic

I may be forgetting some

Sword and Scale: fucking intense. Lots of real audio, some of it I cannot listen to. Borderline exploitative imo but one of the better quality programs

Last podcast on the left sometimes do some very good in depth episodes on serial killers, cult leaders, etc. but you have to sit thru their terrible improv sidekick and toilet humor. It very rarely works but I like their rapid fire high energy on their show. They work hard on it

True Murder, just cuz it's so strange, is worth checking out. The host has NO sense of humor and is a no nonsense interviewer. Just the facts! Mostly boring but sometimes of interest

True crime garage...eh two boring dudes drinking beers and talking about murders. Still I listen sometimes.

My favorite murder: I like these women, but their Schlick wears on me often. Two smart and funny women talking mirders. I like the hometown murder episodes where fans write in their real life hometown true crime tales.

coyote wrote:Sword and Scale: fucking intense. Lots of real audio, some of it I cannot listen to. Borderline exploitative imo but one of the better quality programs

there's an episode where this host dude goes into a hypocritical rant about how the point of this show is to highlight the stories of the victims and give some dignity to their name. it's hilarious because he rarely ever goes in-depth on victims, only killers. it's goreporn of the highest order. definitely an exploitative element to it, but the primary source audio is my absolute favorite. the episode on this case, the Byron Davis killings, is one of most haunting things i've ever heard.

Spoiler:

you get to hear Byron waiting in his basement, premeditating what he will say to the police after he commits this act, then shooting two teenagers. all of this was caught on his own home surveillance equipment!

this is the second half of episode 15, if you're curious. if people are into it, i can make a whole list of recommendations for this pod. it's pretty necessary because there are also some boring-as-fuck episodes. like a recent one about the dangers of the "Dark Web". who gives a shit man! us loonies just want child abductions and murder-suicides!

i've had the idea of cutting my own Sword and Scale style podcast out of the story of the Toolbox Killers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Bittaker_and_Roy_Norris. i think it would make an excellent pod. Bittaker is disgusting as all hell.

I've also got a huge amount of time for Jack Encarnacao. The UFC 20th Anniversary rewind series he did for Sherdog back in 2013 was amazing. They broke down the events in into batches of 10-15 and had Jack talk to a pertinent dude for each batch. There's probably getting on for 80+ hours of it! I had an amazing time listening to them travelling round Japan for a month.

Starts there and goes on for a couple of pages: http://www.sherdog.com/tag/sherdog-rewind-radio/list/2

coyote wrote:Sword and Scale: fucking intense. Lots of real audio, some of it I cannot listen to. Borderline exploitative imo but one of the better quality programs

there's an episode where this host dude goes into a hypocritical rant about how the point of this show is to highlight the stories of the victims and give some dignity to their name. it's hilarious because he rarely ever goes in-depth on victims, only killers. it's goreporn of the highest order. definitely an exploitative element to it, but the primary source audio is my absolute favorite. the episode on this case, the Byron Davis killings, is one of most haunting things i've ever heard.

Spoiler:

you get to hear Byron waiting in his basement, premeditating what he will say to the police after he commits this act, then shooting two teenagers. all of this was caught on his own home surveillance equipment!

this is the second half of episode 15, if you're curious. if people are into it, i can make a whole list of recommendations for this pod. it's pretty necessary because there are also some boring-as-fuck episodes. like a recent one about the dangers of the "Dark Web". who gives a shit man! us loonies just want child abductions and murder-suicides!

i've had the idea of cutting my own Sword and Scale style podcast out of the story of the Toolbox Killers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Bittaker_and_Roy_Norris. i think it would make an excellent pod. Bittaker is disgusting as all hell.

Thanks for the recs, Avec. I look forward to digging into some of these. These things bring back the illicit pleasure of secretly reading my uncle's true crime books bitd.

Bruegel wrote:I've also got a huge amount of time for Jack Encarnacao. The UFC 20th Anniversary rewind series he did for Sherdog back in 2013 was amazing. They broke down the events in into batches of 10-15 and had Jack talk to a pertinent dude for each batch. There's probably getting on for 80+ hours of it! I had an amazing time listening to them travelling round Japan for a month.

Starts there and goes on for a couple of pages: http://www.sherdog.com/tag/sherdog-rewind-radio/list/2

this was fantastic. as with all of these "Serial" type podcasts there are some annoying aspects in the story construction and the narrator's POV, but this was really well done. for those that don't know, it's a serialized investigation of the Jacob Wetterling abduction in Minnesota. it also dives a bit into the history of sex offender registries. if you like true crime, i would call it a must listen.

Bruegel wrote:Chrono, I would appreciate a list of choice S&S episdoes.

these are my must listens from Sword and Scale:45&61015162227&28293033&3439404445&464957&58616263&64676871757779&808183

there are many more solid episodes beyond these, but these are the stories that stick out as essential.